🔊 Tiger Woods & TGL Have Problems...

📰 TOP STORY
TGL Virtual Golf League Delayed Until 2025 Due To Dome Damage

• TGL virtual golf league delayed until 2025 due to dome damage. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy will have to wait until 2025 to launch their tech-infused TGL competition because of damage to the Florida arena that was going to take too long to repair and create scheduling problems for television and players.

The six-team league was supposed to debut on January 9th on ESPN and finish the season before the Masters in April.

Ownership of the six teams has already been announced and players were filling rosters.

And then the league suddenly had no place to play because of a power failure last week.

The November 14th failure of a temporary power system and backup systems used for the construction of the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens caused the dome to deflate, which damaged the air-supported dome section of the arena (more here).

💰 MONEY MOVES 
Sports App Investigates Stock Market Decline

• Signing Day Sports, the company behind the Signing Day Sports app, which includes an innovative technology platform service for high school athletes in the college recruitment process, remains committed to executing its business development growth plans despite IPO struggles (more here).

• Smith & Nephew to buy sports med tech startup for $330 million. Smith & Nephew PLC, a titan in the medical technology realm, announced a groundbreaking deal to acquire the innovative sports medicine technology startup, CartiHeal. This strategic acquisition is set to invigorate Smith & Nephew’s already strong sports medicine business and knee repair product line (more here).

• Saudi Arabia-backed mixed martial arts league challenges UFC with Bellator deal. The Professional Fighters League has acquired Paramount’s Bellator MMA as the Saudi-backed company challenges Endeavor’s Ultimate Fighting Championship in the mixed martial arts world (more here).

• A-Rod, Lore may bring on an investment firm to complete the Timberwolves deal. Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore still haven’t formally become the new majority owners of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx — but help from a $382 billion global investment firm may finally push their deal across the finish line (more here).

• Billionaire Ken Griffin is in talks to buy Miami Dolphins and F1 stakes. Ken Griffin is interested in buying a minority stake in the Miami Dolphins, positioning himself to join the growing number of finance titans that count themselves as team owners in the National Football League (more here).

• Slumping VC and PE markets could set up a strong 2024. So far in 2023, the venture capital and private equity markets have been in retreat, but that could change going into the new year (more here).

• ESPN Bet's grand vision: A 20% market share of U.S. online sports betting. ESPN Bet is now live in 17 states -- but it's starting off with about a 2% market share of American sports gamblers (more here).

 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS & COLLABS
Big Ten Agrees To Greenfly Deal To Help College Athletes Monetize Their Content

• GameOn partners with Sportsology to develop Next-Gen Fantasy Sports $GAME Infrastructure. GameOn, the next-generation fantasy sports platform announced a letter of intent to complete a software development and support agreement with Sportsology (more here).

• Big Ten agrees to the Greenfly deal to help college athletes monetize their content. The multi-year partnership will allow the conference to provide student-athletes across 14 member institutions sophisticated access to tailored content they can leverage to build their brands (more here).

• College baseball stars sign NIL deal with Rapsodo. The sports technology company partners with top MLB Draft prospects Blake Burke, Brody Brecht, Chase Burns, Jac Caglianone, and Vance Honeycutt (more here).

• U.S. Ski & Snowboard signs a four-year partnership with fitness technology company iFIT. The agreement will see iFIT retrofit U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s Park City headquarters with fitness equipment and technology that. According to the companies, the technology will be utilized by more than 250 athletes and staff daily (more here).

• Adobe adds to women’s football portfolio with FA Cup deal. Adobe has added to its sponsorship portfolio in women’s football by agreeing to a three-year deal to become the lead sponsor of the Women’s FA Cup (more here).

🔊 OTHER HYPE
Sydney Opens An $100 Million Sports And Technology Hub 

• A $100-million sports hub opens in Sydney’s west. Located at Rooty Hill in Sydney’s western suburbs, the new $100-million Blacktown Exercise Sports and Technology Hub has opened, under the attention-grabbing acronym BEST (more here)

• European athletes should start investing in sports tech: Sports tech investment is on the rise. In the second quarter of 2023 alone, sports technology firms raised $1.6 billion in private funding, and M&As hit $14.5 billion (more here).

• Virat Kohli, Lebron James, Michael Phelps, and many other star athletes swear by THIS piece of tech. The WHOOP is a very simple, almost non-descript-looking fitness band; However, it’s so good at what it does (more here).

• Seeking nominations for top agents and managers helping athletes break into media and build careers beyond sports. Business Insider is looking for nominations for the top agents and managers helping athletes develop careers as content creators (more here).

• AI-driven technology to revolutionize sports betting via personalized experiences based on patterns, and interests. AI continues to reshape sports betting and change how users engage (more here).

• Even at sporting venues, fans must play digital defense. Facial recognition technology is increasingly being used in sports venues for security purposes (more here).